Half-Way There, And Quite Predictable: A Report on the Cannes Competition, So Far

Half-Way There, And Quite Predictable: A Report on the Cannes Competition, So Far

Half-Way There, And Quite Predictable: A Report on the Cannes Competition, So Far

by Stephen Garrett

As Cannes rounds the halfway point, the only surprise so far is just howpredictable most of the major filmmakers’ entries have been. Ken Loach hashis bleak U.K. stories of the poor and unemployed (barking, of course, inincomprehensible accents); Tsai Ming-Liang has his alienated Taiwanese vainlymopping up leaky apartment floors; Rolf de Heer has his handicapped societaloutcasts struggling to find love; Nanni Moretti has his navel-gazingobservations about Italian politics and its effect on his personal life;Shohei Imamura’s got his whores, abusive men, and backward villages; ToddSolondz has his parade of misfits and losers; Ingmar Bergman has his self-reflective observations on theater, cinema and life, all wrapped up inpsychological despair; and Terry Gilliam’s got his tripped-out visions ofreality. Nothing succeeds like previous successes, but nothing bores morequickly than redundancy.

Solondz, to be fair, does develop his misanthropy into a more disturbinglymature voice with “Happiness“, one of the stronger premieres this week in theDirector’s Fortnight sidebar series. But in the main competition RobertoBegnini stands alone as the one filmmaker (so far) who truly breaks out of hisown auteurist stereotype to create “La Vita e Bella” (Life is Good), a (believe itor not) comedy about the Holocaust that is one of the more touchingexpressions of the human spirit in the face of absolute despair.

Begnini himself stars as a Jewish bookseller whom the Nazis take, with hiswife and little boy, to a concentration camp. Lying to his son, he re-imagines their incarceration as a sleepaway camp to preserve the boy’sinnocence about the world. Wildly inventive, reminiscent of the bestscrewball comedies and genuinely evocative of Charlie Chaplin’s unique mix ofhumor and pathos, La Vita e Bella is never tasteless and often devastating.

“The theme completely turned me upside down,” Begnini explained at a pressconference full of journalists mostly gushing with effusive praise for thecomedian/filmmaker. “I received this gift from Heaven, and I hesitated — Ifelt a struggle in my whole body. But you need to be strong when you’re inlove. And I loved this idea.”

In a conversation that touched on Primo Levi, Dante, Proust and Kafka, Begninirobustly defended his decision to take on the subject of the Holocaust.“Comedy is perceived as a minor genre — and this is not a farce aboutconcentration camps. It’s a tragedy presented by a comic. This is a comicmaking a tragic film.” When asked how he felt about being in competition withCannes’ other Italian entry, Nanni Moretti’s “Aprile“, Begnini had only kindwords. “It is an honor to be alongside Moretti,” he said in his typicallybooming and buoyant voice. (Moretti’s film, although well-received at thefestival, is generally less personal than “Caro Diario”, with an emphasis onlocal Italian politics and culture that doesn’t translate well overseas). Andwhen a few journalists continued to praise him for his movie, Begnini joked,“I can come back next year, if you like.”

Meanwhile, critical opinion remains divided on the movies in competition andlukewarm overall, with Begnini’s film receiving a mixed reception despite itsdefenders. The Hollywood Reporter considers “Dance Me to My Song” to be another“Shine” for any distributor willing to work hard enough in the U.S., while thefrontrunner for the Palme D’or, as far as Variety is concerned, is “La VieRevee des Anges”, a pouty French drama about the friendship between twotwentysomethings girls, from first-time director Erick Zonca. The thirdFrench film to premiere so far at the festival, “La Vie” was preceded the daybefore by “La Classe de Neige“, Claude Miller’s powerful drama about a littleboy on a school ski trip who escapes into wild, nightmare fantasies as a wayof emotionally dealing with an oppressive, overprotective father.

Returning to the Grand Palais for the first time since winning his secondPalme d’Or last year for “The Eel” was Shohei Imamura, looking fit despiterecent reports of failing health. He brought with him his new film, “KenzoSensei“, about a country doctor battling hepatitis on a remote island town.Set in 1945, in the months between Hitler’s suicide and the dropping of theatomic bomb on Hiroshima, the movie is a vibrant display from a filmmaker withfour decades of experience under his belt and told with his unique blend ofbawdy humor, outbursts of violence, poignant despair and magical epiphanies.

Monday the Variety Pavilion played host to “Financing Independent Film,” theannual seminar organized by the Independent Feature Project and co-sponsoredby Ernst and Young International. Moderated by producer Dolly Hall(represented at Cannes with her Director’s Fortnight selection, LisaCholodenko’s “High Art“), the lively 90-minute discussion covered topics thatranged from pulling together film financing to working with a distributorduring production of a film. When asked what the most favorable elements arefor packaging a movie, Lion’s Gate Executive Vice President Jeff Sackmancracked, “Leonardo DiCaprio is a very favorable element right now.” (Lion’sGate just spent $21 million to land the Titanic thesp’s skills for itsformerly low-budget “American Psycho“). And Ernst & Young’s Declan O’Neilltouted Ireland as a very favorable element for producers, since the country’stax incentives have caused a boom in low-budget filmmaking such as NeilJordan’s “The Butcher Boy“.

Stratosphere’s president Paul Cohen pointed out that producers should keep inmind the cost to distributors of prints and advertising when working with themto promote and release their films. “The cost of releasing a film, in theindependent area, is usually 50% of its budget,” he noted, and explained thatthere has to be a risk/release balance of how much people are willing to makeback on the film. Mark Amin, co-founder, chairman and CEO of TrimarkPictures, though respectful of film budgets, steered the conversation awayfrom hard figures. “The importance of budgets is highly exaggerated,” heexplained, and evoked films ranging from last decade’s “sex, lies, andvideotape” to last year’s “The Full Monty“. “Look at the history of independentfilm: they depend so much on character and dialogue.” He even admitted thathe didn’t care so much about seeing a boom hanging in frame than watching anengaging story. “Forget about the money — think of the integrity of thefilm.”